Need opinions on my weekend desktop impulse buy...

Full Metal XL

Full Metal XL

CAGiversary!
So this past weekend was the Ga. tax free holiday, which means no sales tax on certain items and computers are included, making it an ideal time to buy one down here. So yesterday while I was out at Best Buy, I ran across a package deal of a Gateway AMD Athlon X2 7750 dual core processor desktop with 6 gigs of DDR2 memory, 640 gig HDD, ATI Radeon HD 3200 integrated graphics card, 20 inch lcd monitor & some printer for $499...so I impulse bought it. Now I'm wondering if it was really a good deal. Thoughts? Thanks in advance! :cool:
 
[quote name='Richard Longfellow']I love bragging disguised as a question. :applause: Of course that's a good deal.[/QUOTE]

Ha! Honesty, it wasn't bragging...I'm a console cowboy and not really up to what a desktop goes for as far as what it's equipped with. I'm woefully deficient in that knowledge, unfortunately...:whistle2:#

[quote name='mission42']Buy a decent graphics card for that and your set with a good deal I'd say.[/QUOTE]

Is the card crap? And what do I need should I ever decide to try PC gaming? :whistle2:k
 
Rule of thumb: if you can walk out of a big box store with it, the computer is probably overpriced. That said, there's probably not a ton of wiggle room on a sub-$500 computer anyway, so you probably did not do a whole lot worse than you could have by purchasing online.

Now, about your videocard, I'd say pick up one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127415

...and you will be golden. It's $75, but with a $20 mail-in rebate that keeps it in the neighborhood of the old rule of no more than 10% of the total cost of the machine for upgrades. Good luck!
 
10 percent of the total cost of the machine for upgrades? Blasphemy... that philosophy and youll drastically bottleneck ur machine.
 
Your system seems a bit out of proportion: 6GB of memory on a Athlon X2 7750? I like the fact that it includes an LCD though, so I dont think you did bad at all. But like people have said, drop a dedicated video card, and you'll be ready for some decent gaming. Something like 4850 1GB will work good in your new computer.
 
[quote name='SOSTrooper']Your system seems a bit out of proportion: 6GB of memory on a Athlon X2 7750? I like the fact that it includes an LCD though, so I dont think you did bad at all. But like people have said, drop a dedicated video card, and you'll be ready for some decent gaming. Something like 4850 1GB will work good in your new computer.[/QUOTE]

I've also got a 7750 and it works out pretty nicely with a 4870 but I'm sure the difference between that and the 4870 isn't too huge compared to the price. I'll agree with SOS.
 
OK, so the general consensus is decent deal, just spring for a better graphics card for gaming, correct? Sounds doable to me...thanks, people! :twisted:
 
[quote name='BasketCase1080']10 percent of the total cost of the machine for upgrades? Blasphemy... that philosophy and youll drastically bottleneck ur machine.[/QUOTE]

You're right. I forgot we're talking about CAGs here, and the total machine cost is a *lot* lower than what I'm used to owning. I might skimp on a lot of things, but my computer ain't one of them. However I still stand by the card I recommended. If the card he puts into his $500 computer costs $150, then that kinda defeats the purpose of scoring a great deal.
 
[quote name='Full Metal XL']OK, so the general consensus is decent deal, just spring for a better graphics card for gaming, correct? Sounds doable to me...thanks, people! :twisted:[/QUOTE]

You may also want to clean up the machine, removing unnecessary programs, getting shit our of your startup group, etc.


Big Box store PC's from major manufacturers are notorious for having half of their harddrives filled with shit you dont need.

A simple cleanup of this crapware is like giving your PC a free performance boost.
 
[quote name='Full Metal XL']
Is the card crap? And what do I need should I ever decide to try PC gaming? :whistle2:k[/QUOTE]

Any integrated graphics card is going to be pretty much useless for gaming. Spend around $100 or so and get a decent graphics card if you want to be able to play some more current games. If you don't care about newer games on your PC, you'll be fine. You'll be able to play starcraft and diablo 2 on that machine, and that's all you really need a PC to be able to do anyway.
 
OK, so I decided to get a new card, but also decided to wait till Black Friday to do it so I can hopefully get an awesome deal on a really good one. However, I kinda want to play something on this right now. Can anyone recommend me some good games that would run on what I got for now? RPGs, action/adventure, FPS, whatever...kinda leery about RTS and TBS as I never seem to have the patience to finish them. Thanks in advance! :cool:
 
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